What am I?" Joao paused and walked away from the oven and towards Monkaedi, "what do you think I am?" he asked with a mocking tone as he wiped his hands clean.
Monkaedi watched him for a while without saying anything, Joao did not break eye contact either.
"A maid… I guess," he said as he now tried to dodge Joao's gaze.
"I've spoiled you too much," Joao sighed, "maybe I should stop coming here every weekend."
Monkaedi jumped off the couch and ran to the small island in the middle of the kitchen. He slammed his hands on the table and he said in a smooth and calm tone, "you aren't serious are you?"
"Keep your dirty hands out of my kitchen, and even if I was serious about it. What can you do?" Joao said with a huge knife near Monkaedi's throat.
"...." Monkaedi slowly raised his hands from the table and grabbed Joao's hand along with the knife. "Can you use this?"
"I… I don't…" Joao stumbled over his words, his heart started to pound faster and harder, and body temperature rose.
"It's okay, you don't have to force yourself." Monkaedi said as he pulled him towards him. He rubbed his hand through Joao's hair and said, "why don't you put your weapons down for good and continue living a peaceful life?"
Joao started to calm down, Monkaedi's words came with a promise and a memory. He remembered the day he decided follow him, alongside Po, Monkaedi put his life on the line for Joao. Their friend shop and their bond was something he desired more than anything.
"You, you told me never to give up didn't you? Are you afraid of GAFA, do you think that you are endangering me?"
Monkaedi released him and put his hands in his pockets, he couldn't look at Joao in the eyes.
"Well you don't have to feel that way, I'm doing this because I want to stop running away from my past. I want live to become greater than the worst of them and to die without any regrets."
"Are we still talking about cooking?"
"We never were."
They did not say any more, not because they did not want to, but because they could not speak freely in this large and beautiful apartment that came with everything but comfort. Monke went back to the television, the regular programming was done and it was now free until 6pm, he played video games.
When Joao finished cooking the two had a loud supper with Monke going on and on about his belief in the existence of witches. The longer the conversation went on, the dumber Joao thought he was getting, but he still did not say anything to agree nor disagree with Monke.
Monday came and the boys went and returned from the morning workouts. Joao returned first to prepare the leftover Collins' root stew for breakfast. Po came in later on with Monke after he bragged about it being the tastiest thing he ever had.
The three boys showered and had breakfast in the same house, it had been a long time since they last did this. So today's meal seemed to taste a bit better than usual, this is what Joao wanted, giving up on fighting and leading a normal life would mean all of this will disappear right before his eyes and he did not want that.
"I heard about your adventures over the weekend," Po said with a smile while pushing away his empty plate.
"Adventure?" Monke asked.
"Yeah, you know, saving the old lady and discovering that people are doing as they please on your territory."
Joao started cleaning up the table to avoid the sudden silence.
"Don't look at me like that, since when have you ever been serious before?" Po said in response to Monke just staring at him coldly, people kept telling him that he had changed but he believed that Monke was just trying to put up a facade.
"I am sorry, I was just wondering who told you that."
"I know everything, now hurry up tell me what you're going to do about it."
"Why don't you tell me who is doing this? It'll be a great help."
"I have a curfew you know, I can't just go out of my schedule for something like this."
"Ungreatful brat,"
"Again with that look, why I oughtta kick it out your face."Po snarled.
"I dare you to try," Monke snarled back.
"Man shut up, anyway. I can't do a hands on investigation for now, but I can at least let you know that those guys from the elevator are still alive. When we returned that day had the boys dig for bodies and they did not find anything. Yesterday I got a call saying that the bomb was rigged to explode when the elevator went up."
"Is that so?" Joao said as he wiped across the table with a damp cloth.
"You guys don't look like you're surprised to hear this."
"I thought it was strange that the lift didn't blow up immediately when it reached the ground floor. After that I saw the display show it open and close, it was only when it went up that it blew." Monke said as he threw a cherry a Po.
"There also seemed to be a lot less damage on the ground floor lift door than anticipated, to be more precise there wasn't any."
"This coming from a cry who cried like a girl."
"I'm sensitive, small, and delicate, what else am I supposed to do?"
"Tell that to somebody who doesn't know you. But then again why did you cry that time, it's not like you felt guilty or anything?"
Joao raised his head to glare at Po, Po didn't dodge him and kept that weird and wide smile mounted on his expression.
"I don't know. Want to help me find out?"
"I'll be more than happy to," said Po and he somehow scaled the dining room table in seconds to reach Joao who was on the other side. He leaned in on Joao as he said this and this time his smile was more tame than ever.
"I will stab you on the throat with a toothpick." Joao exclaimed as he fled.